Change of Heart
by Aaren1
Summary: Remember me? I'm in the process of revamping parts of the concept for this story. Old readers, skim the changes. New readers, welcome.
1. Potions and Suprises

Hi everyone,  
  
I made some slight changes to parts of the concept for this fic. It's not that big, but it's a change. Old readers, skim. New readers, welcome.  
  
Chapter 1  
  
"Good morning all," 16-year-old Ginny Weasley said as she sat down to breakfast with her friends Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, Seamus Finnegan, and her brother Ron Weasley.  
  
They returned the greeting. Harry and Seamus went back to discussing Quidditch, their favorite game, Ron and Hermione went back to talking quietly, Hermione grinning like a Chessy cat every now and then.  
  
While Ginny was helping herself with some scrambled eggs, her blue eyes scanned the other tables, which were full of chattering students, and eventually landed on Slytherin's table. She noticed in an instant that a certain blonde-haired, steely eyed someone was not at the table in his usual spot between Crabbe and Goyle.  
  
*Gosh, I hope he's alright*, she thought. Then she chided herself, *Ginny! He's Draco Malfoy, why do you care where he goes and what he does?*  
  
Harry's low tenor voice brought Ginny back to reality. "Well, we'll just have to find out if Fred and George got their new shipment in. Isn't it the first Hogsmede weekend, Ginny?"  
  
Ginny shrugged. "I dunno. 'Mione!"  
  
Hermione looked up from where she and Ron were holding their conversation (a private one, Ginny decided, since Ron's ears were turning red).  
  
"Erm, Yes! Yes it is. What you all say about going together?" Hermione asked.  
  
Harry shrugged. "I promised Cho I'd meet up with her, but I can probably stick around for a little while."  
  
"What about you, Gin? Want to come with us?" Ron asked.  
  
Ginny knew that if she went, she'd have to put up with Ron and 'Mione being all mushy. After having to deal with it all summer, she knew what Harry meant when he told Seamus Finnegan he felt like a 'third wheel' around them sometimes. Even if Harry did go, he'd probably bring Cho, and while Ginny liked Cho, she would feel like a 'fifth wheel'. She had long gotten over her crush on Harry, and now she and him were like brother and sister.  
  
"Erm, maybe. I'll see," She said hurriedly. A flash of white-blond caught her eye, and her focus traveled back to the Slytherin table, where she found Draco Malfoy.sitting by himself? Ginny frowned. That didn't make sense at all.  
  
It was no secret that Draco and Harry were the two best-looking guys in Hogwarts, and since Harry was fiercely loyal to Cho, (even though she had graduated already and was living in Hogsmede), all of the girls seemed to have, at least, a secret crush on the tall, lithe blonde boy from Slytherin. Even Lavender and Pavarti, who ad been part of Harry's fan club for the longest time, had been heard secretly mooning over Draco.  
  
Ginny didn't really care either way. She did find it surprising, though, that Malfoy hadn't made any sharp comments about her family, about her hair, or just about anything for that matter. In fact, he hadn't even acknowledged Ginny's presence since the beginning of the year! She wondered what had made him have a change of heart all of a sudden.  
  
*That still doesn't explain why he's sitting by himself, though*, Ginny thought, *Last year, he had all of the Slytherin girls around him. Wonder what's gotten into Draco.*  
  
The bell rang, and everyone got up to go. Ginny groaned inwardly; her first class was double block of Potions with the Slytherins. Not wanting to be late and risk the wrath of Professor Snape, Ginny picked up her (overly crammed) bag and walked quickly towards the dungeons.  
  
She got there just before the bell rang and sat down just as Professor Snape came in.  
  
He stood at the front of the class, glaring at all of them, including his own House students.  
  
"Today, we are going to be concocting the potion of Moranis. The---"  
  
Suddenly, the door slammed, and everyone turned to see the poor fool who was late. Draco Malfoy ran in.  
  
"Sorry, Professor Snape," he muttered as he put his books down. A few of the girls giggled. Ginny rolled her eyes at their giggling. *For Merlin's sake, he's just a boy, and not even a decent one at that. I guess if it moves and resembles a guy, they'll think it's cute.*  
  
Snape said in a bored voice, "Class, as you may know, it is necessary for graduation to complete a number of aide hours, and Mr. Malfoy will be aiding this class on these days. If he gives you suggestions, I suggest you follow them." He let the threat hang before continuing with the lesson.  
  
"The potion of Moranis is derived from the Mornea plant, whose leaves, if eaten, can kill you by slowly invading your blood system and stopping your heart rate altogether. It's flowers, however, which are bright orange in color, can be used in a simple potion to reduce bruises," he continued, and Ginny saw him subtly shoot a look at Draco. Ginny thought she imagined it, however, because he quickly looked away.  
  
Professor Snape paced as he said, "When crushed moth's wings are added, the potion should resemble water and is safe to bottle. However, if it turns black, don't touch it. Well? Why aren't you all writing this down?" He suddenly barked. Everyone rushed to grab quills and parchment and hurriedly scribbled down the notes.  
  
The rest of the class went pretty much uneventfully; Ginny was paired with a friend named Mari, so they were finished first. Not that that was saying much, as the potion took a long time to boil, so they sat idle for most of the class until five minutes before the bell, when Mari said, "Ginny, could you hand me the crushed moth's---whoops!" She said, and accidentally knocked the jar of moth's wings on the ground. The glass had an Unbreakable charm on it, or Ginny would've had to pick up glass shards as well as the fragile moth's wings.  
  
When the bell rang, signaling it was time to leave, everyone left except Ginny, who told Mari to go on ahead and she would catch up. As she was leaving, she saw Malfoy and Professor Snape were talking and Snape put a hand on Malfoy's shoulder.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 


	2. The Hospital Wing, Hogsmede, and more Su...

Chapter 2  
  
The hours blended into days, and quite suddenly, it was ten o'clock Friday evening and Ginny was walking to the Hospital Wing with her brother because he and Harry had been goofing off and playfully cursing each other, when Ron had tried to curse Harry with the Jelly Legs' curse and, because he was not really playing attention, not only did he get the words in the wrong order, he accidentally pointed the wand at himself. After everyone's laughter died down, Ginny had volunteered to take Ron to the Hospital Wing to get his collarbone fixed and his head on straight.literally.  
  
"Ya know, this wouldn't have happened if I hadn't gotten the two words mixed up?" Ron said while attempting to walk backwards, and succeeding in only running himself into the walls, which greatly amused Ginny.  
  
"If you had paid more attention to which way your wand was pointed, you wouldn't have your head on backwards," Ginny smirked, stopping her brother from hitting another wall, this one with a portrait of Bodrid the Bearded on it.he tended to insult anyone who came near his portrait.  
  
"Oh, listen to you, sounding like 'Mione all of a sudden," Ron grumbled, but stopped as soon as they got into the hospital wing.  
  
Ron was quickly ushered away by Madame Pomfrey, who clucked her tongue and muttered about untrained students running amok with their knowledge of magic, and just seemed to have taken no notice of Ginny at all. Ginny, unsure of what to do, stood awkwardly by the door in the otherwise empty wing.  
  
She was wondering if Madame Pomfrey would yell at her for sitting on the marble floor when she heard a soft moan coming from one of the beds on the darkened side of the hospital wing. She frowned and listened for it again, just to se if it was her imagination.  
  
"Stop it.leave her alone.I'm over here, you bastard! Oh God."  
  
"Ginny?"  
  
Ginny jumped at the voice that came from behind her, which of course was Ron, with his head on straight.  
  
"You ready to go?" He asked.  
  
She nodded, and the two walked back to their common room.  
  
*~*~*  
  
The next day, Ginny sat down to breakfast with Hermione and chattered about Hogsmede and who was going to get what for Christmas.  
  
"I don't know. Christmas is almost a month away and I still don't know what to get him!" wailed Hermione.  
  
Ginny smiled. "I'll find something for you to give him, trust me. Hey, maybe we can get Cho in on this too; that'd be fun."  
  
Hermione chuckled. "Oh, that's rich, the girls going to get Christmas gifts for their boyfriends.or in your case, friends and family."  
  
Ginny wasn't listening anymore, as she had just seen Draco sitting down at the end of the Slytherin table again, like he had been since the beginning of the year.  
  
"Ginny!"  
  
"Wha.?" Ginny looked back at her friend Mari.  
  
"Are you alright? You seem really distracted," Mari said.  
  
Ginny admitted, "I do have a lot of stuff on my mind."  
  
"Wanna talk about it?" She asked.  
  
She gave her best friend an apologetic look and shook her head.  
  
"Alright, alright, I can tell when I'm not wanted. But let me know if you ever do, okay?" Mari smiled.  
  
Ginny returned the smile. "Well, it's almost eleven, think we should start heading over to Hogsmede?"  
  
The two got up and left the Great Hall.  
  
"Ginny, wait up!"  
  
The two turned to see Hermione walking towards them.  
  
"Hi 'Mione. We're trying to think of good gifts for the guys. Want to shop with us?"  
  
"Sure, I was going to ask you both what I should get Ron for Christmas anyway. That man is impossible to shop for!" She laughed.  
  
The three walked into Hogsmede, shivering as the London icy air of November hit them in the faces.  
  
Their first stop was at the Candy store, where Ginny picked up some Chocolate Frogs, Sugar Quills, and Bertie Bott's for Harry and Ron. Mari wandered around and finally got some of the same. Hermione couldn't find anything she liked in the candy store, so they finally went to Zonkos. It was very crowded, but Fred saw the three girls the second they got in the door.  
  
"Hey, look who it is! Oi, George, lookit what the wind dragged in!" Fred called into the back, where George came out.  
  
"Hey! You guys lookin for Christmas gifts?" The three girls nodded. George came from behind the counter and showed them all of the new candies and such that they had invented.  
  
An hour later, the three girls were loaded down with bags and pains in their stomachs from laughing so hard at the twin's antics. They were almost twenty, and they hadn't changed a bit since their Hogwarts days.  
  
They were thinking about going for a Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks when a tall figure at the side of the joke shop caught Ginny's eye. The person's face was quickly covered by the hood of the raven-colored cloak they were wearing, but there was no mistaking the flash of white-blonde hair.  
  
Ginny's curiosity finally got the better of her and she said, "Uh, you go on ahead, I'll be back in a minute," she told Mari and Hermione.  
  
"Ginny, don't go far. It's going to start snowing in a little bit," Hermione warned before taking Ginny's bags and letting her go.  
  
Ginny stealthily walked behind Malfoy, who had his black cloak hood over his head, shielding him from the sharp, cold air that was blowing about.  
  
This was crazy. She knew nothing about him, and she was stalking him. Why? It didn't make sense, but she kept following him anyway.  
  
He kept quickly turning corners past different shops, making Ginny think Malfoy was trying to shake her off. He stopped at the edge of the shopping area, hesitated, then continued to walk until he got to a residential area known as West Hogsmede, which was crammed with muggle-style townhouses and apartment complexes.  
  
Ginny had never been this far back from Hogsmede before, and it was starting to worry her. What was Malfoy doing this far back from Hogsmede? Was he doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing like----Ginny cringed at the thought---something that had to do with the Death Eaters?  
  
If that much was true, she would be in big trouble if she was caught. Not like school trouble, but maybe even death. But she had heard the rumors about Draco's invitation to join the Death Eaters, and it was just a rumor, just like the rumor about her and Harry had been.  
  
As if he heard her thoughts, Malfoy stopped at one of the townhouses and looked around. Ginny quickly ducked behind the steps and out of sight, but not out of hearing range.  
  
Apparently, he had knocked at the door, because there was a telltale groan of the hinges on the door. Ginny discreetly snuck a peek at the doorway, expecting to see an imposing, dark-haired Death Eater standing at the door.  
  
Instead, it was a thin, brown-haired girl who didn't look much older than Malfoy.  
  
"Draco! Thank goodness. I thought I was going to have to stay with Billy and Dante all day and miss my job interview." The girl breathed.  
  
When Malfoy spoke, it was in quite a different voice than she was used to hearing; he sounded warm and understanding, and it made his voice, which was lower than Harry's, sound extremely attractive.  
  
"I'm sorry Meg. There's a huge crowd out at Hogsmede, and it took awhile to get away from it."  
  
"Well, you're here now, so it doesn't make much of a difference."  
  
Suddenly, a new voice was heard, this one was high and sounded like a little boys'.  
  
"Dako!"  
  
Ginny looked again, and was extremely surprised to find Malfoy had picked up the little boy and was bouncing him on his hip.  
  
"Hello Billy. Where's your brother?"  
  
Another boy came out from the door, this one was scowling and had his hands on his hips.  
  
"Why do you have to leave, Mum?"  
  
Ginny thought Malfoy would be insulted, but instead his face broke out into a warm smile. The difference was startling; he looked very handsome and Ginny could see why he was the most attractive single guy at Hogwarts.  
  
"Oh, come now Dante, we'll have fun. I'll show you how to play the game I showed you last week."  
  
The boy suddenly squealed with delight. "You promise?"  
  
"Promise," Malfoy said.  
  
Meg then turned to him. "Dante, do be good and don't give Draco too much trouble, please? Mummy could get this job this time."  
  
Malfoy said, "Oh, don't worry, we're just going to run with scissors, play with matches, you know, all the good stuff."  
  
Meg hit his arm playfully. "Well, I must go now. Be good.all three of you. I don't know what I would do if I didn't find you that day, Draco.I couldn't leave the house! You're a lifesaver."  
  
As Malfoy went inside the flat and Meg put on her royal purple cloak, Ginny realized that what Draco was doing at this moment had nothing to do with Death Eaters.  
  
Draco Malfoy was babysitting! *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 


	3. Interlude3A

Interlude---3A  
  
(AN: Okay, this chapter is the first of a few interludes that involve Draco's POV of his home life before he goes to Hogwarts for his seventh year. These chapters also include how Draco met Meg, the girl with the two sons from Chapter 2. But, be warned! This chapter, along with most of the Interlude chapters, contain issues of child abuse, which explains the rating. Don't like, skip over these chapters.you'll probably be able to figure out what's going on..)  
  
*Flashback-June, the year before*  
  
The muggy June air came through the countless windows in the Malfoy Manor, providing no relief from the bitter cold inside the house. The Malfoy Manor was one of the most respectable manors in wizarding London. However, the Manor itself was not warm and cheery, like so many of the others. It was built out of massive stone slabs, and very well constructed, but reminded anyone who saw it from a distance of a graveyard; impending doom of the person who dared to set foot in it.  
  
In one of the many downstairs studies, a tall, imposing figure sat in a high-backed leather chair, while a short, fat man sat in a mahogany chair on the other side of the large antique desk.  
  
"So do you think your son will be prepared to join us, Lucius?" Goyle asked.  
  
Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father, turned his empty wine glass between his fingers idly as he spoke.  
  
"If I say he will be, he will be. I have told him to be prepared for it sometime this summer. I have informed the Dark Lord, and he is pleased. He will accept him personally," he drawled, and it was easy to see where Draco had gotten most of his looks from. If one was to look at Lucius and Draco side by side, one would think they were brothers; they looked exactly alike, except for the fact that Lucius, although very handsome indeed, had eyes that were cold and hard, and reminded you of pieces of blue ice. If it was true that the eyes were the window to the soul, Lucius Malfoy's was frozen over.  
  
"You don't think---he has the idea--- to refuse?" Goyle hesitantly asked.  
  
Lucius set the glass down and gave Goyle the impending death glare that Draco was so famous for at Hogwarts.  
  
"He is too afraid not to refuse. His mother tries to keep him from what she calls the 'Dark Side' of magic, and she will have to be punished. I can use Narcissa to make Draco agree, but only if I must. He has this bond with his mother, and that must be broken." For a second, something flickered behind Lucius' icy blue eyes, but Goyle thought he must've imagined it, because they were back to ice again.  
  
"Speaking of which, where is my darling son?" Lucius said, though the term of endearment were twisted into sarcasm.  
  
"Lagos!" Lucius barked to one of the house elves standing nearby. The tiny house-elf stumbled forward.  
  
"Y---yes, Master?" Lagos stuttered.  
  
"Go find my son and bring him to me. Do not come back until you have found him."  
  
Lagos hurried out of the room.  
  
*~* Draco was sitting out in the courtyard by the western wall, his knees curled up to his chest as he stared out at the vast acres of land without really seeing them. He was, in his mind, devising a way for him and his mother to escape the Malfoy Manor and go live in West Hogsmede or someplace, so he could finish school and she could sit and not worry about Lucius ever beating her ever again. He could get a job after Hogwarts, but where? An Auror? Probably not. What if he ran into his father during an Auror raid? He wasn't sure he could fight him; hell, he couldn't even stand up to him *now*, let alone in a few years.  
  
"Master Draco! Master Draco!"  
  
Draco was startled out of his thoughts by Lagos, his father's personal house-elf.  
  
"Master---Master Lucius is wanting to see you right away, Sir!" Lagos panted.  
  
Draco stood, brushed the dirt off his robes, and reluctantly followed the three-foot tall servant into the dungeons.  
  
His palms were sweating and his stomach was clamping up into knots as he entered his father's personal study. It was not as large as the Library, which had amassed a large amount of leather-bound books, most of them featuring the finer points of the Dark Arts; Lucius never believed in Muggle literature, believing it was all "fairy tales", and Draco had become bored with them very quickly when he was a small child.  
  
He swallowed, and then walked fully into the room, the light from the fireplace reflected in his steely gray eyes. Only someone looking for it could see the hate in them as he approached his father.  
  
"Ah, finally. Draco, I wish to discuss something with you," Lucius said, waving Goyle away and gesturing for Draco to sit in the spot that Goyle had just left. Draco sat, wondering what he did this time. His father hated him, and only asked for him if he wanted to punish Draco.  
  
*Oh, God. It has to be my grades--Even though I was highest in Slyherin house, Granger's a lot smarter than I am.*  
  
"Do you know what this is?" Lucius asked in a dangerously low voice as he held up a piece of parchment.  
  
"No, father," Draco said truthfully, keeping his voice neutral.  
  
"This is a grade report from your sixth year. You had the highest marks in Slytherin house, but not in the whole school. I demand to know why," Lucius said, his voice never changing.  
  
* Here it comes.*  
  
"Well, father.The---mudblood---Granger---"  
  
Lucius stood. "Are you telling me that that damn mudblood filth beat you in exams for the fifth year in a row?"  
  
"I---"  
  
Lucius cut him off. "I don't want to hear excuses. Excuses are just falsehoods to cover the truth. I don't want to hear about any halfblood girls beating you in anything ever again."  
  
"Father, It wasn't my fault---" Draco abruptly shut his mouth. Bad move. If there was one thing that Draco leaned very quickly as a child, it was not to contradict his father.  
  
Lucius took his wand out of his pocket.  
  
"Father, please---"  
  
"Crucio."  
  
Draco would've thought that he'd be used to this constant vicious cycle: the Crutaricus curse, then he would get down and start beating him by hand. Draco hoped to God that he wasn't angry enough to bring his mother into this; that would mean more bruises and cuts for Draco, as he would gladly take his mother's beating if he was still standing from his own.  
  
The pain was back, with twice as much intensity as it usually was. Draco just braced himself and tried to ride the crashing steel waves of pain that went through his body.  
  
The five minutes that Draco was under the curse felt like days. When his father let him off, Draco felt a few of the usual bruises start to form on his back and something that felt like water going down his arm.  
  
He opened his eyes to see that it was not water, but blood flowing freely down his arm. At some point, he must've knocked his father's wine glass over and cut himself on it. He tried to stand and hoped that his father was getting tired of beating him so he could leave.  
  
But to no avail. His father kicked him in the side, and Draco felt something crack under his father's steel-tipped boots.  
  
"Get up, you pathetic excuse for a son. Get up and fight me like a man."  
  
Draco pulled himself up to a sitting position again. "I won't fight you, father." He knew better. The last time he had tried to fight his father, he had ended up in the hospital.  
  
His father struck him across the face. Draco spit out the river of blood from his mouth.  
  
"You won't be a man? Well, at least you're not trying to be something you aren't for once. But you will get up. Imperio."  
  
Draco felt all of his pain melt away and felt vaguely like he was floating. It was bliss. He relaxed, and heard a little voice in the back of his head say, *Just get up.*  
  
He knew better than to fight it. He stood up.  
  
.and instantly regretted it. His father struck him again.  
  
"Is that all you have in you, Draco?" His father laughed, calmly conjuring up a handkerchief and cleaning Draco's blood off of his own knuckles.  
  
"You are just a pathetic boy. Get out of my sight," Lucius said, and sat down in his leather chair again like nothing had happened. Draco didn't know where he found the strength, but picked himself up and stumbled out of the luxurious study.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* 


	4. Christmas at Hogwarts

Chapter 3  
  
"Ginny! Ginny! Come on, wake up!"  
  
Ginny, somewhere in her sub-conscious, felt something being thrown at her, and she opened her eyes to find Mari sitting on her bed, hitting her with a pillow.  
  
"Merry Christmas, Sleeping Beauty! Look! Gifts!" Marisol laughed, tossing her thick black hair behind her.  
  
Sure enough, Ginny looked to find a large mass of gifts waiting for her at the foot of her bed. Marisol went over to her own bed and started opening her presents.  
  
Ginny took the one from the top and started opening. She had received a beautiful green leather-bound sketchbook from Bill, small silver dragon figurines from Charlie, a beautiful midnight blue cloak from Percy, a big box of candy from the twins (which she decided against opening), a small charm bracelet from Ron, Chocolate Frogs from Harry (who was pretty much clueless on the subject of gifts for girls), a new set of colored charcoals from Cho, a book of pictures of unicorns and fairies and the like from Hermione ("see if you can draw these!") and the standard dark Kelly green sweater and a caramel egg the size of a dragon egg from her mother and father.  
  
Ginny quickly got dressed, put the rest of the gifts aside save her charcoals and sketchbook, sat down in the common room and began to draw. Ever since Ginny was little, she had been extremely observant in the way things took form, and had a definite eye for detail. Drawing was her passion, and she had at least five sketchbooks full of drawings at the Burrow.  
  
In the hour and a half the Common room was empty, Ginny had drawn every single one of her friends; Harry, Hermione, Marisol, and yes, even Ron.  
  
She hadn't even noticed that Marisol had been watching over her shoulder.  
  
"Ginny?"  
  
Ginny jumped. "Yes?"  
  
"Could I possibly.have that drawing of me? I'd really like it."  
  
Ginny carefully tore it out, signed it, and handed it to Marisol, who examined it. The Marisol in the picture was sitting in the Library, staring intensely at a book. The eyes were expressive, and it definitely looked exactly like the real Marisol.  
  
"Wow, Ginny, I didn't know you could draw!" Marisol breathed.  
  
Ginny shrugged. "I've been doing it since I was little. Shall we go down to breakfast.erm..lunch?"  
  
Marisol nodded, and the two walked down to the Great Hall, arm in arm.  
  
The Great Hall was decorated in all of its finery, right down to the Ghosts singing Christmas carols. (Except the Bloody Baron, who looked ready to kill something.)  
  
"Ah! More students! Please sit with us, it seemed a shame to use the House Tables when there are so few of us. Have some food!" Professor Dumbledore said happily, and motioned for the two girls to sit. They complied, and were suddenly surrounded by a vast amount of every kind of food Ginny could imagine. Ginny, as she piled some fried chicken on her plate, wondered where the house elves put all the food that the students and teachers didn't eat.  
  
After the two friends were considerably full, they went back to their dorms to grab their heavy wool cloaks. Ginny thought beforehand and pulled a Chudley Cannons sweatshirt over her black Weird Sisters band T-shirt. She took a quick look in the mirror, and was glad that not many people were around for the Christmas holidays. Her shoulder-length, fiery red hair was a mess, and her brother's sweatshirt and her baggy jeans didn't exactly accent her curves. She sighed. Why couldn't she have something *interesting*, about her? Sure, her hair made her stand out a little, but that was about it. Why couldn't she be tall, like Hermione, or at least have pretty eyes, like Cho's inky black or Marisol's hazel? She had plain, uninteresting blue eyes, and because she was so petite, she really didn't stand out much. She ran a hand through her unruly hair, pulled on a hat, and led Marisol out of the Common Room.  
  
They walked briskly outside. The scene outside was like one you would see on a muggle postcard; the snow blanketed everything outside, and the only light from where the two were standing from the castle to the other end of the lake was the dim light coming from Hagrid's window in his hut.  
  
"Heads up!"  
  
Ginny spun around and ducked just in time, but Mari wasn't as fast as Ginny so she received a snowball in the face by Ron.  
  
"Agh! I'm going to kill you!" Mari cried, and chased after Ron. Pretty soon, it was an all-out fight between Ron, Ginny, Mari, and Dean and Seamus, who came out to all the yelling.  
  
Three hours later, the five friends were soaking wet, laughing, and freezing as they climbed the stairs to the Griffindor common room. Ginny stepped back for a minute just to see the sun that was setting down over Hagrid's hut. It was truly a beautiful thing, because the snow and the ice over the lake reflected the setting sun, and made the lake look like it was ablaze with a wldfire of reds, oranges, and yellows against a backdrop of midnight blue and black. Mari's voice brought Ginny back to reality, and she followed her back to their dorm.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* 


	5. Interlude4A

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
As Draco stumbled out of the dungeons in a delirium; bruised, battered, and bleeding, his mind wandered. Why did he let his father effect him like that? Was he just weak? Was he wrong to not want to go over to the Dark Arts? Was he just going out of his mind? But there was one question that stood out in his blurry thoughts like a diamond in a coal bin: *What did he do to deserve this?*  
  
His father's words came back to him, loud and clear as if Lucius was standing right next to him, yelling the taunts and stinging insults in his ear:  
  
* You won't be a man? Well, at least you're not trying to be something you aren't for once.*  
  
*You are just a pathetic boy. Get out of my sight.*  
  
He then jumped to hear the study door, two floors, below him, slam. Draco panicked---what if it was his father?---, and then heard a small voice in his head say,  
  
*Run.now, while he can't hurt you!*  
  
So, Draco took off, not really knowing where he was going; his white-blonde hair had combined with the blood from the cut on his forehead when he had probably hit the wall or desk or something, making it look red, like that girl's---Ginny's, was it?---hair. He then saw a whir of light, and suddenly found himself kissing the marble floor in the parlor. He stood again, and ran to the blazing fireplace where he threw some Floo powder into the fireplace, but didn't specify a location.  
  
He saw many fireplaces go by, but finally found a dark alleyway of some kind. He launched himself out and fell by a brick wall, gasping. He brought his knees to his battered chest and shivered, despite the heat in the alleyway in which he was sitting while he tried to clear his head, which was screaming in protest and threatened to black out if he did anymore traveling.  
  
"Are you all right?"  
  
Draco's head flew up to see a young woman standing in front of him.  
  
He gave her a cold, furious glare that spoke for itself; it seemed to say, "Does it *look* like I'm alright?"  
  
She stepped back. "I'm sorry. Here, let me help you up---"  
  
She reached out towards him. Even though Draco looked and felt like hell, his reflexes were still lightening-sharp. After the years of being abused by his father, he didn't trust anyone, which explained why he quickly stood and moved away from the woman. He then doubled over in pain from his side; it felt like he had broken at least two of his ribs.  
  
The woman's eyes took in his bloodied white muggle t-shirt he was wearing, the bruises on his back that were apparent through the thin shirt, the dried blood that made a angry, dark line from the crook of his arm to his palm where he had cut himself when he knocked over the wineglass, and his gaunt, pale features that were darkened by the bruises that were starting to form on his face.  
  
Instead of being shocked, the woman said, in a voice that one would use to calm a frightened animal, "It's alright. No one's going to hurt you now."  
  
Draco suddenly thought of his mother, who was still trapped in the confines of the Malfoy Manor, miles away. How in the hell was he going to get back to her before his father did?  
  
He started to ask to use her fireplace, but thought of a better question somewhere between his brain and his vocal chords: "Where am I?"  
  
"You're in West Hogsmede. Do you know how you got here?" She asked in the same voice as before.  
  
"Floo Powder," Draco muttered.  
  
"Ah. Well, the least I can do is clean that cut for you and see how badly you're hurt. I'm not about to let a hurt boy wander around the streets of West Hogsmede by himself."  
  
Draco was longing to argue that he wasn't a boy anymore, that he was turning seventeen in a few months, but it came out as a cough.  
  
"Come on. My house is just over there. My name's Megan Woodsworth, by the way, but please call me Meg. What's your name?"  
  
"Draco Malfoy. I guess you can call me Draco," he said, and allowed himself to be led a few doors down to a small muggle-style townhouse.  
  
She unlocked the door and let him into the small house. It was sparsely furnished, and the few pieces of furniture that were there seemed to have been bought second-hand, but Draco didn't seem to mind this at all.  
  
She suddenly turned to him and whispered, "My two sons are light sleepers, please do try and not make too much noise."  
  
He nodded to show he understood, and allowed himself to be led into the kitchen, where Meg gestured to the small wooden table.  
  
"Go sit while I find my first-aid kit. I'll be with you in a minute."  
  
Draco sat and looked around the small room. The fireplace seemed to take up most of the room, but there were still a few cabinets for plates and such.  
  
A mix of bright colors caught his eye, and he saw on one of the walls some pieces of parchment with bright colors resembling different scenes. It wasn't high-class work or anything, so Draco decided that her two sons had drawn them. He went over to the wall and examined the parchments.  
  
A few were large scribbles that slightly resembled a house, a broomstick, and a woman, and had the name 'Billy' written neatly in red ink on the bottom corner of each one. The others were pretty much the same depictions, but had slightly more form to them, and even had a dark-haired man in a few of them. Those were marked 'Dante' in the same neat, red handwriting.  
  
"My two sons drew those."  
  
Draco jumped and spun around to see Meg standing there with a white box in one hand and her wand in another. She set both down and joined Draco at the other end of the kitchen. She gestured to the portraits.  
  
"Dante's my oldest, he's nearly eight. Billy is five. How old are you?" She suddenly asked.  
  
"Almost seventeen."  
  
She smiled, and then had a faraway look in her eyes. "I remember what it was like to be almost seventeen."  
  
She then shook herself loose from the clutching reverie and looked at him. "Come back to the table so I can fix your arm."  
  
Draco obediently complied, and stuck out his arm. Meg put a stinging substance on it, and prodded it with her wand. It stopped bleeding, and the wound already looked a week old. Draco just absent-mindedly looked at the short, deep gash on his bicep. It would help greatly if everything would stop spinning. A big bottle of Brandywine would be nice. Maybe two. He shook the thought out of his head. He was not going to take to the bottle. His father had, and it had destroyed him.  
  
"Are your ribs broken, is that why you were favoring your side earlier?" She asked, bringing him out of his thoughts.  
  
Draco shrugged. *Wouldn't be the first time, and after this escapade, it definitely won't be the last.* "Might be."  
  
"Lift up your shirt," Meg commanded. Draco did so, thinking that if their conversation were taken out of context, it would be so wrong on so many levels.  
  
Meg gently traced the outline of one of his ribs and said, "Yep. Just as I thought. Draco, you broke a rib."  
  
*Damn it. That'll take a long time to heal, even with magic. Time I don't have. Father will surely be taking my departure out on Mum now. I have to stop him.*  
  
He hastily pulled down his shirt and said, "Well, Meg, it was nice meeting you, but I really must be going now."  
  
Meg didn't get up, but said, "Where are you going to go?"  
  
He said, "Back to where I came from."  
  
"Where someone's hurting you?" Meg said, more as a statement than a question.  
  
Draco's eyes narrowed. "You don't know anything about me."  
  
"That's right, I don't. But I do know I can't let you go back to somewhere where someone is beating the shit out of you for no reason."  
  
"You don't understand! He'll kill my mother---"  
  
"Who will? Who will kill your mother?" Meg said quietly.  
  
Draco backed up against the wall, breathing heavily. This wasn't happening. He was not sitting in some stranger's house, answering extremely personal questions that he did not want to answer! He'd rush out the door, if the goddamned room would stop spinning. He felt the walls of this woman's kitchen start closing in on him, and he felt claustrophobic.  
  
Meanwhile, Meg had gone back to her 'calming the animals' voice.  
  
"Draco, you're sick and delusional. I'm only trying to help you, but you need to sit down. You're in what the muggle doctors call shock. If you don't calm down, you're going to pass out."  
  
Suddenly, Draco resented this woman who could sit at her own table and tell him what was going on inside *his* head. *She* didn't have to face her abusive father so her father would lay off her mother. *She* didn't have to worry about being shut up in one of the dungeon cells in the very bottom of the basement one day when she was least expecting it.  
  
"You don't understand.You don't understand." he kept murmuring. The walls shut him inside them and floor rose to meet him very suddenly.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~* 


	6. Revelations

*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 5  
  
"Hey, Mari, wait up!" Ginny called over to her friend as she walked out of the Astronomy Tower a few weeks later. Hermione stopped where she was, shifting her crammed shoulder bag to her other shoulder. Hermione had chosen to aide Astronomy that night, and Ginny was grateful to get help, which Hermione was happy to provide.  
  
Ginny ran over to where Hermione was standing and smiled.  
  
"Hi. How was your winter break?" Ginny asked. Hermione rolled her eyes.  
  
"Boring as all. My parents used the excuse that I had Holidays to grill me on everything I knew about Ron. They just won't accept the fact that I am seventeen-bloody-years old, and I can pick a significant other just fine on my own!"  
  
"Yeah, I understand. Ron had to go through pretty much the same thing with our parents."  
  
"So I've heard.hey. What's that really good smell?" Hermione asked as the two continued down the stairs from the Tower.  
  
"I'm hoping my perfume," Ginny laughed, and brought her wrist up to 'Mione's nose.  
  
"Yep, that's it. I'm going to have to get some of that." Hermione said with a laugh.  
  
"Yeah.OH!" Ginny gasped as she slipped on the icy staircase and tumbled down.  
  
"Ginny! Are you alright?" Hermione hurried down the stairs.  
  
Ginny stood up and smiled grimly. "Has to be all of the Weasley clumsiness genes." She then noticed her knee had a gash in it where it had struck the stone steps. Hermione clicked her tongue.  
  
"Let's get a bandage on that. Madame Pomfrey's isn't far." She helped Ginny up and gathered all of Ginny's textbooks, which she carried as she walked the redhead to the Healer's wing. After taking her books from Hermione and assuring the older girl she'd be fine, Hermione left.  
  
"Madame Pomfrey?" Ginny asked, opening the hospital wing door, which responded with a soft creaking sound. The healer was closing the curtain around a bed and turned towards Ginny with a glass of water in her hand.  
  
"Ah, it's always one of you Weasleys," the Healer said with a smile. Ginny returned it sheepishly.  
  
Madame Pomfrey sat her on a bed and examined Ginny's knee. She said, "Oooh. Nasty scrape. Let me guess. You slipped down the Astronomy Tower stairs." Ginny nodded.  
  
Madame Pomfrey made an exasperated sound. "I've told Professor Sinastra about this thousands of times, and does she listen to me? No!" The healer took out her wand and tapped Ginny's knee. Instantly, the blood vanished, and the skin came back together.  
  
"That should do the trick. Don't hurry down those steps next time, yes?" the Healer said as she disappeared into her office.  
  
Ginny took that as her cue to leave, and stood, testing her knee. It felt fine, and she turned to leave, vowing to learn that spell.  
  
"No.God damn it! Leave her alone! I'm over here!"  
  
Ginny frowned. Where was that coming from? With a wary glance towards Madame Pomfrey's office, she approached the bed that Madame Pomfrey had been leaving when Ginny had come in. The yellow hospital curtains were drawn around the bed, but there was a gap in them wide enough for Ginny to slip in between them. It was dark, and she could just make out a body curled up in a ball on the bed.  
  
"Lumos," Ginny whispered, and the corner of the room was illuminated with the light from her wand. She knelt beside the form to see something that shocked her.  
  
It was Draco Malfoy. But not the Draco Malfoy that Ginny was used to seeing; the arrogant, sneering, snobbish seventeen-year-old man who loved to torment her and her brother about their faults. No, this Draco Malfoy looked like a lost little boy, almost angelic-looking with strands of white-blonde hair falling over his face and closed eyes. He was curled tightly into a ball under the light blue blanket, his knees touching his chest, and tears were streaming down his face.  
  
"No.stop it.leave her alone," he groaned softly, and then turned his back to Ginny, the blanket falling off its place around his upper chest.  
  
Ginny gasped. His bare back was almost completely black and blue with bruises, and his shoulders had various scars on them that didn't look like he fell off his broomstick.  
  
They looked human, like someone had been hitting him intentionally.  
  
Ginny hadn't even realized she was shivering, and not from the chilly late- January air coming through the propped open window nearby. Her first impulse was to hug him, touch him in some way to reassure him, and actually got as far as touching his pillow, but realized how strange it would be for him to wake up seeing Ginny Weasley, family of his supposed sworn enemy standing over him.  
  
She slowly backed away from the bed, but knocked something over, making a not-so-quiet bang in the silent hospital wing. Draco stirred, and Ginny braced herself for the outraged boy to wake up and start hexing her.  
  
But, thankfully, he didn't wake, and Madame Pomfrey didn't come out of her office. Ginny hurriedly picked up whatever had fallen from Draco's night table and shoved it into the deep pocket of her robes. She quietly moved out of the curtains, whispering "Nox," somewhere along the five feet from the curtain to the wall. She turned on a dime and quickly walked out of the hospital wing, deeply disturbed by what she had seen. But what was it that she had stolen? She stopped just outside of the darkened library and pulled the object out of her pocket.  
  
It was a notebook. Without thinking, Ginny opened it, expecting it to be blank, but was half full of writing.  
  
Against her better judgement, she sat down and started to read. When she did, she found it was not a diary, but more of a songbook. The first one read:  
  
* He's drunk again; it's time to fight  
  
She must have done something wrong tonight  
The living room becomes a boxing ring  
It's time to run when you see him clenching his hands  
She's just a woman... never again*  
  
"Whoa, Malfoy. What the hell have you gotten into?" She murmured as continued reading.  
  
*I hear her scream from down the hall  
Amazing she can even talk at all  
She cries to me... "Go back to bed"  
I'm terrified that she'll wind up dead in his hands  
She's just a woman... never again  
  
Been there before but not like this  
Seen it before but not like this  
Never before have I ever seen it this bad  
She's just a woman... never again Just tell the nurse you slipped and fell  
It starts to sting as it starts to swell  
She looks at you... she wants the truth  
It's right out there in the waiting room with those hands  
Lookin' just as sweet as he can... never again*  
  
Ginny had to wonder at that point if that's what happened to Malfoy; somebody beat the hell out of him, and then lied about it. Why would he lie about someone abusing him?  
  
*Seen it before but not like this  
Been there before but not like this  
Never before have I ever seen it this bad  
She's just a woman... never again*  
  
The next part of the song was what shocked Ginny the most; it was not anger anymore, but pure hate and rage:  
  
*Father's a name you haven't earned yet  
You're just a child with a temper  
Haven't you heard "don't hit a lady"  
Kickin' your ass would be a pleasure  
  
He's drunk again, it's time to fight  
Same old shit, just on a different night  
She grabs the gun, she's had enough  
Tonight she'll find out how fuckin' tough is this man  
Pulls the trigger fast as she can... never again  
  
Seen it before but not like this  
Been there before but not like this  
Never before have I ever seen it this bad  
She's just a woman... never again*  
  
Ginny was stunned. She had taken Draco to be a cold, heartless son-of-a- bitch, but that's not was reflected in what he (she was assuming that he) wrote. When she pictured him now, all she saw was the person that was lying on the hospital bed. Ginny sensed now that she was on thin ice; if Malfoy ever found out she knew about him, he would sure as hell not say, 'Okay, Ginny, now that you know, wanna be friends?' But something else in the back of her mind was curious. Malfoy had a hell of a talent, that was for sure. She wanted to know more about him, and more about his songwriting.  
  
She continued to read, and felt like she had just stepped into Malfoy's mind. A lot of his songs were like the first one, talking about how much he hated his father and such, but many talked about love, and the way he felt love should feel like. One chorus stood out in her mind the most:  
  
* There is so much a man can tell you So much he can say You remain my power my pleasure my pain (baby) To me you're like a growing addiction that I can't deny  
  
Won't you tell me is that healthy babe  
  
But did you tell me is that when it snows My eyes become large  
And the light that you shine can't be seen*  
  
She heard a soft beeping sound and looked at her watch, only to realize that it was two in the morning, and if she sat here any longer, Filch would surely find her. She hurried put the notebook in her pocket again, and hurried off to Griffindor Tower. When she got to the Fat Lady, she hurriedly gave her the password ("Butterbeer") and quickly walked up the stairs to her dorm, where she got into bed and fell asleep.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~ 


	7. Missing

*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 6  
  
*Flashback-Hogwarts, before the Christmas Holidays*  
  
Draco strode from the Great Hall in a stunned daze. Lucius had sent him a piece of parchment with one sentence on it:  
  
8I have informed Severus Snape that you will be returning home for the holidays.8  
  
Draco panicked and did the same thing he did at the beginning of the summer: took off at a run. He ran out of the castle and onto the grounds, only stopping at the lake to catch his breath. He, as always, marveled at the fact that Lucius had so much power over him that he could just send him a parchment that had one sentence on it, and Draco could feel the fear cut into his very soul. Lucius was obviously not happy that Draco had stayed at Meg's for the rest of the summer, helping her with Billy and Dante. Draco, honestly, wasn't worried about himself---He'd been put through almost every kind of torture imaginable---but worried about his mother constantly; Was she alright? Was she---it hurt him to think it---dead?  
  
Whether it was from the biting Late November wind or the thoughts of what Lucius was going to do to his mother, Draco started shivering.  
  
*~*~*~* (IMPORTANT AN: Now I'm going past the part where Draco goes home and going straight to the scene in the Hospital Wing after the holidays because if I left that to anything but your imaginations, I'd have to up my rating to NC- 17 and thus be booted off ff.net, and I REALLY don't want to do that. So you get make up this part, it doesn't matter how you do it, because the results will be the same. Much obliged.) *~*~*~*~*  
  
Draco bolted awake in a panicked frenzy. Where was he? It took a minute to realize that he was NOT at the Malfoy Manor, but in Hogwarts, in the Hospital Wing. He slowly relaxed (as much as one who is constantly on edge *can* relax) and tried to remember what his nightmare/flashback was about.  
  
Ah, yes. The classic 'Begging-my-father-to-stop-beating-my-mother' dream. He'd had that one on a few occasions. God, he hated his father. He wanted to rip his (non-existent) heart out for hurting Narcissa.  
  
*Hey, that sounds good. 'Well I want, to rip his heart out, just for hurting you'.Hmm, better write that one down.*  
  
Draco sat up and fished the muggle pen out of his jeans pocket (Draco thought that muggle pens were so much easier to use than quills and ink) and turned to get the notebook Meg had given him for his birthday out of his night table.  
  
Only his bloody t-shirt was in there.  
  
Draco frowned. *What the hell?* Had he taken it out last night? Yes! He had. He finished a song last night before the Healer had come in to give him some sleeping pills.  
  
But where was it? He stood up and knelt down on the cold marble floor, his back screaming in protest. He checked behind the night table, under his bed, and behind his bed.  
  
It wasn't there.  
  
He flopped back down on his bed and tried to think. Had Madame Pomfrey picked it up when she had cleaned or something? No, that couldn't be it. Had someone stolen it? His steely grey eyes narrowed dangerously. If someone had, he would *never* hear the end of it. He shuddered to think about what Potter and his gang of friends would say if they found it. Hell, even if one of the Slytherins had found it, he'd be shunned even more than he already was. He turned onto his side to ease the pressure off his back.  
  
A soft, warm, vanilla-ish smell invaded his nose. It was a nice smell, no doubts there, but who had left it? He *knew* he had smelled that somewhere before, but couldn't remember where. It was a perfume of some kind, and maybe the person who had stolen his notebook had left it, and it was definitely a girl.  
  
*Oh, that narrows it down to about, oh, 500! Come on, you idiot!* He berated himself. Goddamnit, he KNEW he had smelled this nice (okay, very irresistible) smell before.  
  
But from where?  
  
*~*~*~*~* 


	8. Close Encounter

*~*~*~*~*  
  
Ginny groaned as she trudged through the Great Hall with her overly crammed bag, going to Transfiguration, her second-to-last class of the day. Draco's notebook was still in her pocket, as it had been for the past two weeks, and she continued to pour over it at every break time, unlocking Draco's secrets, it seemed. There was sure more to him than met the eye. But if he hated his father so much, why did he hate her so much?  
  
Oh, god. She gasped inwardly as she realized something.  
  
She had class with him. Now.  
  
How could she look him in the face, knowing all she did about him? She gave herself instructions in her head as she walked into the classroom.  
  
'Ginny, just act like you know nothing about it. Try not to look nervous.Ooh! Don't slip on that Slytherin's bag that he so conveniently left on the floor. Good, relax, put on a blank yet interested face, and.oh god. There he is.'  
  
Sure enough, Draco was sitting in the back of the classroom, looking like he was searching for something in the crowd of people.  
  
Or was it someone? Did he know that his book was stolen? 'Well, no shit Ginny, of COURSE he knows his notebook was stolen. But a more important question is, does he know WHO stole it?'  
  
As was bound to happen, Draco's hard, steely eyes turned to her. She simply ducked her head and sat down with her back to him, even though she felt like his eyes were boring into the back of his head.  
  
When the class quieted, they noticed Snape standing in the front of the class.  
  
He asked, "Are you all done talking now? Good."  
  
He started the class, and it was all the 6th year students could do to keep up.  
  
Ginny was in the middle of writing the antidote to the Takisnmor potion when the bell rang. Ginny hurriedly shoved all her books in her bag and raced up the stairs of the classroom to the door. She was anxious to read more of Draco's songwriting.  
  
Suddenly, she crashed into something solid and because she was so tiny, she flew backwards, landing on her butt, her book bag not far away.  
  
"Ginny! You okay?" Colin called as he walked over to give Ginny a hand up. He was being casual about it, even if that meant that he was not laughing out loud out of politeness.  
  
"Sure, I'm fine. What in the name of Merlin did I crash into?" She asked as she brushed her coppery hair out of her eyes and took her book bag from Colin.  
  
"Me."  
  
The two turned to see who else but Draco Malfoy standing in the doorway, looking not at all hurt.  
  
"Malfoy." Colin said, his usually good-natured blue eyes narrowing slightly as he glared at the silvery-haired boy five feet away from him.  
  
"Creevy." Malfoy responded calmly, crossing his arms over his chest.  
  
Ginny sighed.*'Dear god, I do not want to get into this argument right now. Especially not with these two. That could end up in a fistfight. Plus that would only give me away.*  
  
She stepped forward. "Weasley." She said as she pointed to herself. "As glad as I am that you two finally learned each other's last names, now is not the time to recite them at random. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to get out of here before I slip and hurt myself on the testosterone." The last thing she saw as she left the Transfigurations classroom was Draco, who's eyebrows were hidden by his silvery blonde bangs, and Colin, who's jaw was occupying the area around his knees.  
  
*Was I too blunt? Should I apologize for embarrassing them like that? Well.nah, of course I shouldn't,* Ginny thought to herself with a devilish grin as she walked to the Gryffindor Tower.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
Draco watched after Ginny with an amused expression. "Girl's got a sense of humor, never would've thought it," he murmured to himself as he watched her leave. Not a bad view, either. She was a knockout. Great body.  
  
*'WHOA. Where in the hell did THAT come from?!* Draco berated himself loudly in his head.  
  
"You'd probably get off on it or something."  
  
Draco looked over his shoulder to see Creevy standing near him with a mixture of surprise still on his face from Ginny's rather.erm.raunchy comment, and disgust that was clearly meant for him.  
  
"What did you say, Creevy? Didn't hear you." Draco sneered offhandedly.  
  
"I said, 'You'd probably get off on it or something.' End quote." It was now Creevy's turn to sneer.  
  
Draco fully turned. "Excuse you?"  
  
Creevy grinned. "You're right. Excuse me." He moved past Draco and walked from the Transfigurations classroom, but this time, Draco didn't watch the retreating form.  
  
Draco snarled. Yep, Creevy was an asshole. He didn't know what everyone saw in that do-gooder Gryffindor. Draco hated him almost as much as he hated Potter.  
  
As he raised his arm to run a hand through his hair (a habit he picked up from his mother), he smelled that same delicious smell he remembered from the Hospital Wing two weeks ago.  
  
But how had it gotten on the sleeve of his shirt? Draco had secretly kept the pillowcase with the smell on it in the bottom of his trunk; if anyone knew about that, he'd be put to shame more than he already was in Slytherin.everyone in there knew about his resistance to being a Death Eater, and because most of the seventh year Slyths were training to become Death Eaters, he had experienced a huge drop in popularity.  
  
Wait a minute. If the person who had stolen his notebook had the same smell on them now that they did then, that narrowed it down to two people; Potter and Weasley. And because he hadn't even bumped into Potter in any way, shape, or form, that meant two things.  
  
One, Weasley had stolen his notebook.  
  
And two, he was going to get it back.  
  
*~*~*~*~* 


	9. Can you spell CONFRONTATION?

CHAPTER EIGHT  
  
"Days go by and still I think of you.Days that I couldn't live my life without you." Ginny sang her favorite Weird Sisters song to herself as she walked outside Hogwarts into the snow. It was late afternoon, and she had trudged in the snow all the way out to the Herbology Greenhouse to find that Herbology was canceled due to the snow and she had the rest of the day off. So she had gotten back up to the Gryffindor common room to find that she had left her Potions book on one of the shelves in the Herbology Greenhouse, so she had had to double back and get it. She walked rather quickly around the lake and was thinking about getting her gloves next time she had to go outside in this weather (her hands were starting to freeze), when she tripped over a large tree root hidden by the snow that sent her onto her knees.  
  
"Ouch. Damn it, I'm such a klutz," Ginny muttered to herself as she stood and dusted her knees off with her hands.  
  
Wait. That wasn't right. Ginny looked around to see her book lying innocently on the frozen bank of the lake about ten feet away. Ginny rummaged in her pockets, and then realized her wand was no good; she had left it in her bag in the Commons Room.  
  
"Figures," Ginny grumbled as she grabbed a large branch from one of the trees hanging over the lake and started climbing down. She carefully made her way to her Potions book and grabbing it, she tossed it up onto the ground above her. She started climbing back up when the branch, made brittle by the cold, gave way, knocking Ginny onto the ice. The ice, not nearly thick enough to hold even her small amount of weight, started to crack.  
  
*Okay. Don't panic. Just try and get out to the middle; the ice is thicker there.*  
  
Unfortunately, Ginny's reasoning was the worst thing she could've done; the ice broke, and Ginny fell into the water.  
  
Ginny thrashed around furiously for a minute, trying to keep her head above water. It was to no avail; her body was slowing down in the freezing water and she was starting to sink. There was no one outside to help her to her knowledge.  
  
*Oh my God. I'm going to die.*  
  
Feeling herself sinking, before her head went under, Ginny did the only thing that she could think of.  
  
She screamed.  
  
When she went under, she tried to breathe by trying to get her face up, but she found nothing but ice above her head. A red haze filled her mind, and she slowly relaxed.  
  
Suddenly, she felt the ice above her break, and a pair of arms grabbing her by her shoulders and pulling her out of the water. Ginny gasped for breath as the air, warmer than the water by comparison, rushed into her lungs and made her spit out the water previously in them.  
  
When she was sitting on the riverbed again and could form a thought in her mind, she looked over at who had saved her.  
  
"For CHRISSAKE Ginny, were you TRYING to kill yourself?!"  
  
None other than Draco Malfoy.  
  
*The fates are just having a glory day with me today aren't they?* Ginny told herself as she tried to get the rest of the feeling into her freezing body.  
  
"God damn you Ginny, what the hell were you trying to do? Go ice skating or something?!" Draco yelled.  
  
Ginny tried to explain about her Potions book, but the words didn't come out between her chattering teeth and blue lips.  
  
Draco stopped his tirade when he looked at her. Something flickered in his steely blue eyes, and he sighed.  
  
"Come on. You're going to get pneumonia or something if you stay out here. Let's go inside." Draco roughly grabbed Ginny by the arms and pulled her into a standing position. When he was sure that Ginny could stand, he pulled off his heavy cloak and put it around her shoulders as they walked indoors.  
  
Draco led Ginny past the Gryffindor Commons. When Ginny pointed this out, Draco threw up his hands and said, "Fine then. I'll let you explain to your little Gryffindor friends why you're soaking wet on a day like this. That's not my problem."  
  
Ginny then shut up and followed Draco down to the dungeons. In front of a rather gory battlefield tapestry, Draco stopped and said, "Wait here. I don't want to have to explain why a Gryffindor is in the Slytherin common room. I'll be right back."  
  
Ginny complied by hanging back. Draco whispered a password, and disappeared behind the tapestry.  
  
Ginny slid down to the stone floor, thinking random thoughts. This was crazy. She was freezing her butt off. She wanted some hot chocolate. She wondered how Draco had known that she was drowning. Especially that thought.  
  
She was starting to wonder what to say in case anybody passed her when Draco came out again, holding a small bundle. She followed him upstairs and into a small classroom, where Draco shut the door. He set the bundle, which were clothes on further inspection, on a desk.  
  
"Sorry that took so long, I had trouble finding anything that didn't have Slytherin written all over it," Draco said, handing Ginny a pair of grey sweatpants and a black long-sleeved t-shirt.  
  
"Here. You and Pansy aren't anywhere near the same size.hell, Pansy and I aren't anywhere near the same size. but they're clean and dry," Draco said.  
  
They both stood there awkwardly for a minute. Draco then realized what Ginny wanted him to do, and muttered a "Sorry," before turning with his back to Ginny. Ginny could've sworn that she saw a blush on Draco's face, but then dismissed the thought as she pulled off her cold, wet clothes and changed into Pansy's.  
  
Draco was right. Pansy's clothes billowed on her, but Ginny didn't really mind; they were indeed dry, so she wouldn't complain. She cleared her throat loudly, signaling to Draco that it was okay for him to turn around. If he found the fact that Ginny might have well been wearing a circus tent for clothing humorous, he didn't show it. He then handed Ginny a large, black hooded sweatshirt. When Ginny wordlessly put it on and zipped it up, she found that it fit her a lot more closely than Pansy's clothing did; it was still big, but not so big that she disappeared in it.  
  
"That's mine. You can keep that; it fits you better anyway."  
  
Ginny scoffed. "It's not my fault that you're so skinny. Look, you turn sideways and you disappear."  
  
"Hey, don't insult a gift horse," Draco said stiffly, but then relaxed as he realized that Ginny was teasing him.  
  
"I'm not going to say anything. It's too easy," Ginny grinned. Draco laughed with Ginny. Ginny was startled to hear Draco laugh; it was as unnerving as seeing him smile for the first time. He had a great laugh, just like he had a great smile.  
  
When Draco saw Ginny looking at him like she had never seen him before, he frowned. "What?"  
  
Ginny shook her head as if to clear her thoughts. "Nothing," she laughed nervously, "Just that you should laugh more. You have a great laugh."  
  
Draco looked surprised, but then said, "I would, but it doesn't seem to go along with whole Slytherin persona of being sulky and evil."  
  
Ginny smiled and ran a hand through her wet hair as she glanced over at her watch. "Well, we've missed dinner. I'd better go back to my common room so my friends don't freak out."  
  
Draco frowned again as they walked out of the classroom. "Ah yes. The infamous Potter Gang. Potter and his Merry Men. Whatever you want to call it. Wouldn't want them to worry, oh no."  
  
Ginny stopped. "Draco Malfoy, I think you're jealous!"  
  
Draco stopped also and looked at her like that was the stupidest thing in the world. "Jealous?! Me? Of Potter?! Have you lost your bloody mind? Why would I be jealous of him?"  
  
Ginny laughed. "Okay, whatever you say, Draco."  
  
Draco glared at her. "I am NOT jealous of that goddamn do-gooder Gryffindor! Do you understand me?"  
  
Ginny mirrored Draco's trademark smirk. "Yup."  
  
"Good," Draco snapped as he strode down the hall again. Ginny rolled her eyes. *Boys.* Draco was on a self-preserving ego trip and she was going to ignore him until he stopped.  
  
"As a matter of fact, I despise all Gryffindors," Draco growled.  
  
Ginny stopped him just as they got to the Fat Lady.  
  
She looked up at him. "Then why did you save my life, why did you give me a change of clothes, and why are you walking me back to my common room?" She asked quietly.  
  
For the first time in his life, Draco was uncomfortable under someone's gaze other than his father's. And that scared the hell out of him.  
  
Ginny scoffed and shook her head. "Good night, Draco." She whispered a password to the Fat Lady, who looked dubiously over at Draco before opening and letting Ginny inside.  
  
After the portrait closed again, he said softly, "Because you're not like all of the others, Virginia Weasley." He turned on his heel and walked back down to the dungeons again. 


	10. Savior

"Days go by and still I think of you.Days that I couldn't live my life without you." Ginny sang her favorite Weird Sisters song to herself as she walked outside Hogwarts into the snow. It was late afternoon, and she had trudged in the snow all the way out to the Herbology Greenhouse to find that Herbology was canceled due to the snow and she had the rest of the day off. So she had gotten back up to the Gryffindor common room to find that she had left her Potions book on one of the shelves in the Herbology Greenhouse, so she had had to double back and get it. She walked rather quickly around the lake and was thinking about getting her gloves next time she had to go outside in this weather (her hands were starting to freeze), when she tripped over a large tree root hidden by the snow that sent her onto her knees.  
  
"Ouch. Damn it, I'm such a klutz," Ginny muttered to herself as she stood and dusted her knees off with her hands.  
  
Wait. That wasn't right. Ginny looked around to see her book lying innocently on the frozen bank of the lake about ten feet away. Ginny rummaged in her pockets, and then realized her wand was no good; she had left it in her bag in the Commons Room.  
  
"Figures," Ginny grumbled as she grabbed a large branch from one of the trees hanging over the lake and started climbing down. She carefully made her way to her Potions book and grabbing it, she tossed it up onto the ground above her. She started climbing back up when the branch, made brittle by the cold, gave way, knocking Ginny onto the ice. The ice, not nearly thick enough to hold even her small amount of weight, started to crack.  
  
*Okay. Don't panic. Just try and get out to the middle; the ice is thicker there.*  
  
Unfortunately, Ginny's reasoning was the worst thing she could've done; the ice broke, and Ginny fell into the water.  
  
Ginny thrashed around furiously for a minute, trying to keep her head above water. It was to no avail; her body was slowing down in the freezing water and she was starting to sink. There was no one outside to help her to her knowledge.  
  
*Oh my God. I'm going to die.*  
  
Feeling herself sinking, before her head went under, Ginny did the only thing that she could think of.  
  
She screamed.  
  
When she went under, she tried to breathe by trying to get her face up, but she found nothing but ice above her head. A red haze filled her mind, and she slowly relaxed.  
  
Suddenly, she felt the ice above her break, and a pair of arms grabbing her by her shoulders and pulling her out of the water. Ginny gasped for breath as the air, warmer than the water by comparison, rushed into her lungs and made her spit out the water previously in them.  
  
When she was sitting on the riverbed again and could form a thought in her mind, she looked over at who had saved her.  
  
"For CHRISSAKE Ginny, were you TRYING to kill yourself?!"  
  
None other than Draco Malfoy.  
  
*The fates are just having a glory day with me today aren't they?* Ginny told herself as she tried to get the rest of the feeling into her freezing body.  
  
"God damn you Ginny, what the hell were you trying to do? Go ice skating or something?!" Draco yelled.  
  
Ginny tried to explain about her Potions book, but the words didn't come out between her chattering teeth and blue lips.  
  
Draco stopped his tirade when he looked at her. Something flickered in his steely blue eyes, and he sighed.  
  
"Come on. You're going to get pneumonia or something if you stay out here. Let's go inside." Draco roughly grabbed Ginny by the arms and pulled her into a standing position. When he was sure that Ginny could stand, he pulled off his heavy cloak and put it around her shoulders as they walked indoors.  
  
Draco led Ginny past the Gryffindor Commons. When Ginny pointed this out, Draco threw up his hands and said, "Fine then. I'll let you explain to your little Gryffindor friends why you're soaking wet on a day like this. That's not my problem."  
  
Ginny then shut up and followed Draco down to the dungeons. In front of a rather gory battlefield tapestry, Draco stopped and said, "Wait here. I don't want to have to explain why a Gryffindor is in the Slytherin common room. I'll be right back."  
  
Ginny complied by hanging back. Draco whispered a password, and disappeared behind the tapestry.  
  
Ginny slid down to the stone floor, thinking random thoughts. This was crazy. She was freezing her butt off. She wanted some hot chocolate. She wondered how Draco had known that she was drowning. Especially that thought.  
  
She was starting to wonder what to say in case anybody passed her when Draco came out again, holding a small bundle. She followed him upstairs and into a small classroom, where Draco shut the door. He set the bundle, which were clothes on further inspection, on a desk.  
  
"Sorry that took so long, I had trouble finding anything that didn't have Slytherin written all over it," Draco said, handing Ginny a pair of grey sweatpants and a black long-sleeved t-shirt.  
  
"Here. You and Pansy aren't anywhere near the same size.hell, Pansy and I aren't anywhere near the same size. but they're clean and dry," Draco said.  
  
They both stood there awkwardly for a minute. Draco then realized what Ginny wanted him to do, and muttered a "Sorry," before turning with his back to Ginny. Ginny could've sworn that she saw a blush on Draco's face, but then dismissed the thought as she pulled off her cold, wet clothes and changed into Pansy's.  
  
Draco was right. Pansy's clothes billowed on her, but Ginny didn't really mind; they were indeed dry, so she wouldn't complain. She cleared her throat loudly, signaling to Draco that it was okay for him to turn around. If he found the fact that Ginny might have well been wearing a circus tent for clothing humorous, he didn't show it. He then handed Ginny a large, black hooded sweatshirt. When Ginny wordlessly put it on and zipped it up, she found that it fit her a lot more closely than Pansy's clothing did; it was still big, but not so big that she disappeared in it.  
  
"That's mine. You can keep that; it fits you better anyway."  
  
Ginny scoffed. "It's not my fault that you're so skinny. Look, you turn sideways and you disappear."  
  
"Hey, don't insult a gift horse," Draco said stiffly, but then relaxed as he realized that Ginny was teasing him.  
  
"I'm not going to say anything. It's too easy," Ginny grinned. Draco laughed with Ginny. Ginny was startled to hear Draco laugh; it was as unnerving as seeing him smile for the first time. He had a great laugh, just like he had a great smile.  
  
When Draco saw Ginny looking at him like she had never seen him before, he frowned. "What?"  
  
Ginny shook her head as if to clear her thoughts. "Nothing," she laughed nervously, "Just that you should laugh more. You have a great laugh."  
  
Draco looked surprised, but then said, "I would, but it doesn't seem to go along with whole Slytherin persona of being sulky and evil."  
  
Ginny smiled and ran a hand through her wet hair as she glanced over at her watch. "Well, we've missed dinner. I'd better go back to my common room so my friends don't freak out."  
  
Draco frowned again as they walked out of the classroom. "Ah yes. The infamous Potter Gang. Potter and his Merry Men. Whatever you want to call it. Wouldn't want them to worry, oh no."  
  
Ginny stopped. "Draco Malfoy, I think you're jealous!"  
  
Draco stopped also and looked at her like that was the stupidest thing in the world. "Jealous?! Me? Of Potter?! Have you lost your bloody mind? Why would I be jealous of him?"  
  
Ginny laughed. "Okay, whatever you say, Draco."  
  
Draco glared at her. "I am NOT jealous of that goddamn do-gooder Gryffindor! Do you understand me?"  
  
Ginny mirrored Draco's trademark smirk. "Yup."  
  
"Good," Draco snapped as he strode down the hall again. Ginny rolled her eyes. *Boys.* Draco was on a self-preserving ego trip and she was going to ignore him until he stopped.  
  
"As a matter of fact, I despise all Gryffindors," Draco growled.  
  
Ginny stopped him just as they got to the Fat Lady.  
  
She looked up at him. "Then why did you save my life, why did you give me a change of clothes, and why are you walking me back to my common room?" She asked quietly.  
  
For the first time in his life, Draco was uncomfortable under someone's gaze other than his father's. And that scared the hell out of him.  
  
Ginny scoffed and shook her head. "Good night, Draco." She whispered a password to the Fat Lady, who looked dubiously over at Draco before opening and letting Ginny inside.  
  
After the portrait closed again, he said softly, "Because you're not like all of the others, Virginia Weasley." He turned on his heel and walked back down to the dungeons again. 


	11. Rememberances and Realizations

Draco Malfoy was an idiot.  
  
At least, that's what he thought as he paced the Slytherin common room. "Idiot!" He muttered as he threw himself into one of the over-stuffed chairs and sighed.  
  
All he could think about for the last three days was red hair and soulful brown eyes. Damn his weakness for helpless women! She had the ability to make him go from a icily stoic guy to a gaping ass. He even daydreamed about Ginny and what it would be like to date----  
  
*STOP IT!* Draco yelled at himself. *Get a fucking grip, Malfoy. You just got to know the girl and you're already writing wedding invitations.* As he always did when he was frustrated, he dug into his bag and found his notebook, only to have a leather green book fall out with it with 'Virginia Elizabeth Weasley' stamped in gold on the back. He frowned and put his notebook on the end table and opened this book. He was assaulted by a hoard of color and form.  
  
"Wow," He muttered as he looked through the book. It was a professional- grade sketchbook, that was for sure. He didn't know Ginny could draw this well.  
  
He flipped through it, seeing pictures of her friends and family very accurately drawn with little captions at the bottom. (For example, there was a picture of Granger and Ginny's brother posing in what Draco thought was a gross public display of affection. He laughed as he read in Ginny's somewhat uneven writing, 'Geez. Do they ever come up for air?') He turned several more pages, reading the captions that went along with the sketches, delighted that he and Ginny shared the same sense of humor.  
  
But when he got to the near back of the book, he saw a startling picture. It was of him. Not naked or anything, but it was still him. He was sitting in a chair, wearing his usual smirk, but the expression in his eyes was that his mind was elsewhere and he wasn't completely into the gesture of arrogance. The caption read, 'Draco's thinking about something. He always has this expression on his face when he thinks no one's watching. Sometimes, especially at times like this, I wish I could read his mind.'  
  
Jesus. He closed the book. This was making him crazy.  
  
Everything about Ginny drove him crazy. Her eyes, her smile, the way she had of putting things into perspective when she talked to him. And the funny thing was, she actually talked to him. No one else did, not like her. Ginny actually cared about what he had to say; he didn't get much of that often. Drake was not a very open person about his traumatic experiences, and especially not after his father---No.  
  
He wasn't going to think about that. As he was thinking, he stared out the window at the snow on the windowsill. Only when the burning wood in the huge fireplace cracked, drawing him out of his thoughts, did he realize he was fingering the thin scars on the inside of his wrists. His suicide scars.  
  
He was lying on the floor of the parlor. The knife was lying at his side. There was a river coming from his wrists. No, wait, that was blood. Suddenly, his mother came wandering into the room. "Draco? Where are---OH MY GOD! NO! DRACO! PLEASE WAKE UP!"  
  
"Malfoy?---Draco? Hey, Draco. Draco."  
  
Someone was shaking his shoulder. Draco jolted, realizing that he had his hands over his ears. He let go of his ears and looked up to see a nervous first year looking down at him.  
  
"Are you okay?"  
  
He snapped at his younger Housemate, "Of course I'm okay. Leave me alone." He hastily stood up, grabbed Ginny's book, his notebook and his bag, and stalked out of the room.  
  
An hour later.  
  
Ginny went into her bedroom, completely exhausted. She had been in another snowball fight (far away from the lake) and had gotten covered in about four inches of snow. She had taken a hot shower, changed clothes, and started getting tired. So she had trudged up the stairs to her room and was surprised to see Ares, Draco's eagle owl, perched on her bedpost. She and Draco had traded correspondence for a few weeks now, so she got used to seeing Ares. But now, she saw her sketchbook on her bed. She hadn't even realized that she had lost it. She had been so busy that she hadn't put any thought to drawing. She walked over to Ares and stoked his feathers. Ares puffed his chest out and hooted softly. She watched as the owl flew silently out the window. She turned to her sketchbook and picked it up. A piece of paper fell out. She picked it up and read it. It said,  
  
'By the way, you have a definite talent for drawing. If you got some of it published, you could make a lot of money. I think you're very good. But you know, this never happened, so. -Draco'  
  
She laughed, delighted he had remembered that she had said the same thing to him. She put the sketchbook on her nightstand and turned over. The last thing she thought before going to sleep was that she had fallen for a certain blonde-haired steely-eyed Slytherin. 


End file.
